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Mental Health Minute: An Important Lesson From the Gym Massacre (Read This and Pass It On!)

I'm still reeling from the news about the shooting in Pittsburgh, how about you? Random acts of violence--at the gym or anywhere--send shivers up my spine. While the shooting may not have been preventable, one psychologist is speaking out with some surprising advice to all of us, and I think it's a must-read...

****Dr. Gilda Carle, a psychologist and author who I've interviewed before for past CNN.com stories, always has insightful things to say about what's happening in the news. And I think her recent comments about learning from the Pittsburgh gym shootings has big-time life applications for all of us.

For starters, the guy behind the massacre, George Sodini--who, sadly, also took his own life--was clearly deranged. His personal "blog" details all sorts of scary and frightening details. But, Carle reminds us that, like many people who act out in violent ways, beneath it all, Sodini was in a word, lonely.

According to reports, he had this to say on YouTube: "It is easy for me to hide from my emotions for one more day--take a drive in the car, listen to some music, daydream, or just do some mundane task around the house that really doesn't have to be done, that's not too important, and there you go--one more day. One more day turns into one more year." He wrote that he realized "how totally alone, a deeper word is isolated, I am from all else."

"The psychological community doesn't call loneliness a disease," says Carle, " but it lingers long--and as you can see, it can have profound consequences. Sodini's 'lonely' turned to anger."

The lesson for all of us, she says: "Please, everyone, let's not wait until someone goes berserk before we take note that she or he has evaporated from all interactions! Anyone reading this who knows a person who has become emotionally isolated, please reach out to him/her now. Without your outreach, loneliness ... can turn on that person. Offer the comfort of your humanity. While we can't change the outcome of the horror story at that gym, maybe we can prevent another disaster from occurring somewhere to someone else."

Wise words, I think.

So, here's your challenge for today, tomorrow, and this month: Reach out to a lonely person--not because you think they're capable of violence if you don't, but because it does us all good, as Carle says, to share some humanity with others.